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Low cost equipment that works for me


tigerman66

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Recently purchased items at low cost and they actually work.  May not be suitable for others due to aquarium size, bio-load  etc.

I first bought a RO  DI unit for only $64.00. Free delivery in 3 days.  I had it up and running inside of 15 minutes.  My r/o cartridge  delivered water of 9 ppm from my city water.  The DI (final filter) came out at 0 ppm. If you need a tds meter they are on Ebay for not much money. 

The surface skimmer runs just fine and does its simple job.  Finally the ultra cheap protein skimmer works also.  I use a cheap old air pump and a air line valve.

It started producing skim mate within the first 20 minutes.  The collection cup is small and needs a lot of emptying if the device is set to produce wet skim mate.

My tank is a Mr.Aqua 20 gallon long. 12" deep  12" wide  and 36" long. Lots of real live rock, snails, crabs, coral, shrimp and now two tiny clown fish. Been set up for 6 months with no fish, no sump, no skimmers,  only circulation pumps.  I started with lots of hair grass but now running gfo in a small canister filter has taken care of the problem. Gist of my story is don't be afraid of inexpensive things if they fit your tank size.

surface skimmer.jpeg

skimmer.jpeg

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I hate to see those in the hobby getting ripped off by big companies with outrageous prices.  Tap water at 20 ppm ? That is phenomenal. Your r/o unit will last forever.

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1 hour ago, Hirsh said:

I ordered the 75 god RO/DI six stage for $95 off eBay. Ill know tomorrow how it works.

I'm interested to see how this works!

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13 hours ago, samnaz said:

I'm interested to see how this works!

Did you feel you needed to spend $30 more to get an extra 25 gallons a day of D I water ?  Or just didn't know about less expensive units on the market ? 

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31 minutes ago, tigerman66 said:

Did you feel you needed to spend $30 more to get an extra 25 gallons a day of D I water ?  Or just didn't know about less expensive units on the market ? 

Not so much getting an extra 25 gallons per day, you end up getting a better gph rate as well.

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9 hours ago, NanoSteve said:

Not so much getting an extra 25 gallons per day, you end up getting a better gph rate as well.

     Same output either way.

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2 minutes ago, tigerman66 said:

     Same output either way.

 

Yes but some people want say 1 gallon in an hour instead of .6 gallons in an hour. So the unit that does more GPD provides that.

 

On 3/27/2017 at 3:04 PM, tigerman66 said:

I hate to see those in the hobby getting ripped off by big companies with outrageous prices.  Tap water at 20 ppm ? That is phenomenal. Your r/o unit will last forever.

 

It doesn't last as long as you think. My tap is 23ppm. I replace my filters once a year. Which isn't bad but I thought I would get more time.

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15 hours ago, tigerman66 said:

Did you feel you needed to spend $30 more to get an extra 25 gallons a day of D I water ?  Or just didn't know about less expensive units on the market ? 

Its actually a 100gpd. I misread the description. I always buy equipment that is more than i actually need. I know one day ill have a bigger tank and need the capacity.

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On 3/27/2017 at 6:42 PM, samnaz said:

I'm interested to see how this works!

Showed up with a broken fitting from rough handling. Initial impression is amazing. Looks like units that cost twice as much. Also, when i contacted the seller thru eBay, he CALLED me to discuss the issue and tell me he was sending out a new fitting. Ill probably just run to Home Depot and get a new one so I don't have to wait.

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46 minutes ago, Hirsh said:

Showed up with a broken fitting from rough handling. Initial impression is amazing. Looks like units that cost twice as much. Also, when i contacted the seller thru eBay, he CALLED me to discuss the issue and tell me he was sending out a new fitting. Ill probably just run to Home Depot and get a new one so I don't have to wait.

Link to the unit or sellers eBay page? I'm curious if this is the same RO unit I've contemplated purchasing. Bummer it came damaged, but gotta love the hands on customer service.

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  • 1 year later...

Thanks for sharing experience with that little/cheap skimmer!  

I've been making a list of possible similiar items and am happy to hear of an actual user--hard to know it Amazon is accurate or not.  Skimmers seems to be way over priced in my opinion--I get it if you have a huge aquarium, but even many of the small/true nano sized skimmers are $50 at the bottom end of the price range.  

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